Waiting on agents

[Hazelwood63]

Hello. I'm just looking for company on this long waiting game. Anyone else waiting to hear back from agents at the moment? I sent out five initial submissions at the end of January. So far I've received a really encouraging rejection and two requests for the full. Nothing from the other two so far. It's coming up to a month since I sent off the first full ms, and just over three weeks for the other one. Has anyone else waited over a month for a response to a full and been offered representation, or is it maybe time to think of moving on?

Yes, you’re probably right on that front. I suppose there’s a difference between straight-up nepotism and having industry contacts because you did the work and you’re a part of the professional network already. The latter absolutely won’t get a subpar book published no matter what, whereas the former probably will. Ultimately agents are sales people, and they care about being able to make deals that will result in profit. Particularly in today’s woefully risk-averse industry. It used to be that an agent would take you if you had raw talent and your writing showed potential. They would nurture you. Now, for most, it’s about whether you come to them with a product that will sell, and the sooner the better.

Betty MacDonald was a best-selling author in America in the 1940s to 50s. She wrote funny books about her nothing-very-special everyday life. I remember she wrote that she met someone who worked in publishing at a party or something. He told her that they really needed to find a woman who would be prepared to write a book they could publish. There was a gap in the market for female writers, apparently. So she wrote a book for them, they published it and it became a best-seller. Then she wrote several other successful books. So in those days they were on the look-out for a woman they might be able to persuade to write a book, having never written one or thought of writing one before! How things change. But to be fair, the publisher obviously saw that she was a strong, funny woman who could tell a good story about herself. Her books are great and are still fun to read now.

Wow, those were the days.
I still can’t work out how long to wait before abandoning hope—in all the stories it seems that agents pounce within days if they’re keen. The rejections seem to take forever. Or maybe I’ll never hear back? My only full request came within five days.
Congrats on all the full requests everyone!

Absolutely, that's the other side of the same coin. People who know people will get more consideration, and if they are worth it they'll get more easily published.

Honestly, it's not their fault they have an in, and if they have talent it's great that they use that. Wish I got the same consideration of course, but we just have to work a little bit more to make ourselves noticed!

It's just reassuring for me that an unworthy manuscript won't get published just because you know the right people.

Fwiw I've had two full requests so far and both were after a month (almost to the day, for both of them!). So I'm confidently saying that about 4 weeks is a decent amount of time to request a full...

If they have a cut off eg: it says on their website that after 6 weeks of no response consider it a pass then unless it specifically says not to on their website, I would query another agent at the same agency. That's where one of my full requests has come from.

Thanks both, that’s really encouraging!

@Anniethesurfer congrats on the fulls. Are the agents still reading? Keeping it crossed for you.

@NewWriter Nice one. It’s so hard to know the etiquette on this—whether it’s okay to approach an agent at the same agency if another has rejected or CNRed. When you contacted the second agent did you mention the first submission at all, or just treated it as a new approach?

@ferntwist yes I think it's totally fine unless they specify that a pass from one is a pass from them all. I didn't mention that another agent had not responded to a query I'd sent at the agency and they'd just ghosted lol.

Sounds like a very good policy. I cringe at the thought of saying “a colleague didn’t reply to a previous submission” as presumably it would mark me out as worthy of rejection. Remind me, what’s your genre, is it YA?

@ferntwist haha yes I would never mention rejections in my query letter! Yes I write YA 🥰 hopefully I can come back to this thread one day to say I have an offer 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

That is very reassuring, thank you for sharing! The coming week will be the fourth for me, keeping my fingers crossed... Although I think the remaining agents on my list had very long waiting timeframes, like 8/12 weeks.

Keeping em crossed for you! I’m still baffled as to how long it all ought to take—I had a full request within a few days but now nothing for weeks, including for my revised submission to the next batch of agents.

So you sent the new batch already? Maybe they are just busier now than when you sent the first batch, so replies will come in more slowly (agents will be prepping for London Book Fair, I reckon!)

As you got a full request, I'm assuming you didn't change your manuscript for the second batch, but possibly just the query letter? As I only have a rejection to rely on, I've changed my first three chapters as well in view of my next batch. Think I'll probably wait for LBF and then send!

Saying hello as I'm joining the agent query train. Have completed a SF/F book (annoyingly, actually does straddle both genres) and have emailed five agents the partial.

Last time I had a book on submission I only got silence, which was super depressing. Earlier on in my writing non-career, I used to get the odd request or two. I think this one is my best yet and hopefully ahead instead of behind a trend, but let's see.

They are indeed both still reading and I'd be absolutely delighted with either of them, so my fingers are very firmly crossed.

I agree that we're heading into 'preparing for LBF' territory as it's in mid-March, isn't it - so responses might slow down a bit even more. Am keeping my fingers crossed for everyone to endure the wait!

Just popping on to say that my book is being released next Thursday!! It felt only right to come back to the thread that kept me going during the long query days!!

Oh amazing! Huge congrats, it’s a wonderfully exciting time. I found the brief flash of semi-celebrity a bit unsettling, although thankfully normal life reasserted itself very quickly afterwards

@splothersdog huge congratulations! Do message the title if you don't mind and I will make sure to buy it ❤️

Super congratulations! Yes please, do message the title so we can support you!

Congratulations 🎉

Amazing - congratulations!! I hope it's all a fantastic experience... I'll buy it too if it helps!

How fantastic! Enjoy every minute and be prepared to be exhausted at the end of the day, continually going round your social media thanking people who wish you happy publication day!

Has anyone been to London Book Fair? If so, would you recommend it?

thank you!!

Lbf is really for publishers and agents. Some authors go but not many as there isn’t a lot there for them. It’s for publishers and agents to be setting up deals and translation rights etc.